The new 49ers stadium is seen from the Santa Clara Youth Soccer Park as construction is underway at the new Santa Clara Stadium on Tuesday, September 25, 2012, in Santa Clara, Calif. The stadium is scheduled to open in 2014, and the 49ers will make the stadium their new home.

Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez - San Fran, The Chronicle

The new 49ers stadium is seen from the Santa Clara Youth Soccer...

Image 2 of 8

Al Guido, vice president for new stadium sales and service with the 49ers, shows a rendering at the team's New Stadium Preview Center in Santa Clara, Calif., on Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2011. (Noah Berger / Special to The Chronicle)

Al Guido, vice president for new stadium sales and service with the...

Image 3 of 8

Al Guido, vice president for new stadium sales and service with the 49ers, shows a rendering at the team's New Stadium Preview Center in Santa Clara, Calif., on Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2011.

Photo: Noah Berger, Special To The Chronicle

Al Guido, vice president for new stadium sales and service with the...

Image 4 of 8

A rendering of the 49ers stadium design lines a wall at the team's New Stadium Preview Center in Santa Clara, Calif., on Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2011.

Photo: Noah Berger, Special To The Chronicle

A rendering of the 49ers stadium design lines a wall at the team's...

Image 5 of 8

San Francisco 49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh, left, listens as team owner Jed York speaks at a groundbreaking ceremony at the construction site for the 49ers' new NFL football stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., Thursday, April 19, 2012. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

Photo: Jeff Chiu, Associated Press

San Francisco 49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh, left, listens as team...

Image 6 of 8

San Francisco 49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh speaks at a groundbreaking ceremony at the construction site for the San Francisco 49ers' NFL football stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., Thursday, April 19, 2012. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

Photo: Jeff Chiu, Associated Press

San Francisco 49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh speaks at a...

Image 7 of 8

A 49ers flag flies from a crane as construction is underway at the new Santa Clara Stadium for the San Francisco 49ers on Tuesday, September 25, 2012, in Santa Clara, Calif. The stadium is scheduled to open in 2014, and the 49ers will make the stadium their new home.

Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez - San Fran, The Chronicle

A 49ers flag flies from a crane as construction is underway at the...

Image 8 of 8

Construction is underway at the new Santa Clara Stadium for the San Francisco 49ers on Tuesday, September 25, 2012, in Santa Clara, Calif. The stadium is scheduled to open in 2014, and the 49ers will make the stadium their new home. (Carlos Avila Gonzalez / The Chronicle)

Construction is underway at the new Santa Clara Stadium for the San...

Mayor Ed Lee, the 49ers and several prominent civic leaders have been quietly working together on a bid for San Francisco to be the host city of the Super Bowl, The Chronicle has learned.

The National Football League is expected to announce Monday whether San Francisco will be in contention for American sports' most widely watched event in early 2016 or 2017. While the game itself would be played in the team's new $1.2 billion Santa Clara stadium, San Francisco would be designated as the official host city and center of myriad pregame activities in the week leading up to the championship game.

"San Francisco is our home," 49ers CEO Jed York said in a phone interview Friday. "If and when we win a Super Bowl, the parade will be on Market Street."

Not lost on the mayor is the symbolic significance of the team and the city teaming up on a mutually beneficial project of this magnitude. His relationship with York represents a refreshing turnabout from the permafrost that existed between their predecessors: Mayor Gavin Newsom and John York.

City Hall was caught off guard Nov. 8, 2008, when the 49ers abruptly announced that they were abandoning plans to build a new stadium at Candlestick Point.

Some San Franciscans still feel jilted by the team's move from its ancestral home city to a site adjacent to an amusement park 40 miles south. Asked about it at a recent editorial board meeting, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a former San Francisco mayor, made a quip about the "Santa Clara Microchips."

At the same time, some longtime season ticket holders have expressed displeasure about the five-figure price tag for rights to similar seats at the new stadium.

A San Francisco-hosted Super Bowl could go a long way toward healing those wounds, which seems to be a priority at City Hall and team headquarters.

"I really wanted to approach them differently," Lee said of the rapport he has established with Jed York. "I really couldn't do much about it except create a relationship that wasn't there with the mayor's office."

Of course, this being San Francisco, the mayor and the 49ers are determined to give this Super Bowl a distinctively progressive stamp - in technology, in philanthropy and in environmental sustainability.

Lee turned not to one of the titans of commerce but to a pioneer of entrepreneurial philanthropy, Daniel Lurie of Tipping Point, to lead the bid effort. Founded in 2005 by Lurie, Tipping Point has grown exponentially as a one-stop clearinghouse to raise money for antipoverty programs and to make them more effective and efficient.

The NFL typically asks Super Bowl host cities to contribute $1 million to youth programs, a donation that is matched by the league.

$10 million for youth

"We would want to blow that out of the water," said Lurie, setting a target of "10 times that amount." He, Lee and York emphasized that the economic and public-relations windfall from the many thousands of visitors and television exposure would be felt through the region, from Wine Country to Silicon Valley.

San Francisco submitted its application to the NFL's Advisory Committee Aug. 9. Here is the timeline for the next steps:

-- On Monday, the NFL is scheduled to announce which cities are in contention for the 2016 and 2017 Super Bowls.

-- If, as expected, San Francisco is one of the candidates, it will formally submit its host-city plan May 7, and make its live presentation to the 32 NFL owners two weeks later.

Assuming San Francisco makes it past Monday's initial culling, Lurie will need to get to work to raise a six-figure bid package to present to the owners.

The ultimate cost of hosting a Super Bowl would be about $25 million, all privately financed.

$25 million 'doable'

"I wouldn't want to say 'easy lift,' but it's doable," said Lurie, who also said the corporate executives and wealthy individuals he has approached have been "super excited" about the project.

"These are people who have been to every major event on the globe and get invited to everything," he said.

Because the NFL requires that a host team play at least two full seasons in its stadium before hosting a Super Bowl, the February 2016 game would be the first possible opportunity for the 49ers, according to York. Their Santa Clara stadium is scheduled to open for the 2014 season.

The league has signaled that it wants to make a particular extravaganza out of its 50th anniversary game in 2016. Its bid specifications ask prospective host cities to be prepared to fund and manage a "10-day public celebration" with concerts, nightly fireworks and a "Super Bowl 50 Boulevard."

Time and again, San Francisco has shown its ability to accommodate events that would overwhelm a less experienced city - even several at a time, as was evident last weekend.

1 Super Bowl, then ...

"Once we host a Super Bowl, I think you will see we will be on the circuit," York predicted. New Orleans will be hosting its 10th Super Bowl in February, matching Miami. Just one Super Bowl has been held in the Bay Area: at Stanford Stadium in January 1985, when the 49ers defeated the Miami Dolphins, 38-16.

For the NFL, a 50th anniversary Super Bowl here would allow it to show off its $200 million investment in the 49ers' state-of-the-art stadium and return the game to the state of its origin. The first Super Bowl was held at the Los Angeles Coliseum before a sub-sellout crowd of 61,000.

There could be no better place than here to show how far the league, the game and the fan experience has advanced since Jan. 15, 1967.